I several weeks ago I expanded the trellis on the Cascade plant and good thing I did! Both plants have been growing like gangbusters! Take a look at the expansion both plants have done in just three months!

I’ve noticed a few things about the hop plants over the last several weeks. First, many of the leaves at the bottom of the plant have yellowed and died off. This seems to be spreading up the vines but I think that these are just the first few vines that first started from the rhizomes (I could be completely wrong on this though). Second, the leaves near the hops are very green and look healthy. I read somewhere that the plan pushes the nutrients up to the top and that’s why the leaves die down below. Anyone else see this in your hop plants? Lastly, I did notice that the vines expanded so much that both the Cascade and Centennial have “crossed” vine paths. This means I will have to untangle these bad boys before I harvest or I’ll have a good mix of two different kinds of hops.

With any luck I’ll be harvesting at the end of August or early September. From what I’ve read it’s time to harvest when the hops are no longer spongy, papery light and yellow sticky lupulin powder falls out of the cone. I’m looking forward to harvest time!